You won’t believe how Nine Inch Nails is selling tickets on this tour

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MANCHESTER, TN – JUNE 13: Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails performs on stage during the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on June 13, 2009 in Manchester, Tennessee. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

Nine Inch Nails have announced dates for their Cold and Black and Infinite North America 2018 tour.

And the band is taking along The Jesus and Mary Chain as the support act. So, in other words, this is pretty much a can’t-miss show.

Fortunately, the trek includes a stop at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on Dec. 3.

But — get this — you need to buy your tickets in person in order to secure admission. You can’t do it over the phone or even — gasp! — online.

How refreshingly retro!

It’s an attempt to keep the tickets out of the hands of scalpers/resellers, of course. How it works is that fans will have to buy their tickets (again, in person) at The Physical World presale events taking place May 19 at venue box offices (in most cases).

The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium box office from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 19. And the venue is saying, “No lineups permitted before 8 a.m.”

“The promise of a world made better by computers and online connectivity has failed us in many ways, particularly when it comes to ticketing,” the band said in a statement. “Everything about the process sucks and everyone loses except the reseller. We’ve decided to try something different that will also likely suck, but in a different way. We’re hoping many of you will be happy with the results, while some may do what they always do and bitch about it.”

NINE INCH NAILS: COLD AND BLACK AND INFINITE NORTH AMERICA 2018 THE NEW TOUR

Tickets for the San Francisco show are general admission and cost $79.50. There is a four-ticket limit.

After the presale, a limited amount of tickets “may be released via additional ticketing channels, subject to availability, at a later date to be announced,” according to a news release.

But that probably won’t factor into this equation. This show is a safe bet to sell out during the presale.

The band will be supporting its forthcoming release “Bad Witch,” which is due out on June 22. The release completes the trilogy that began with 2016’s “Not The Actual Events” and 2017’s “ADD VIOLENCE,” according to the news release.

Jim Harrington is the pop music critic for the Bay Area News Group. He began writing about the Bay Area music scene in 1992 and became the full-time pop music critic for the organization's Oakland Tribune in 2006. He is a South Bay native and graduate of San Francisco State University.